Alicia Alonso to the Gran Teatro de La Habana . According to the press note , it was a recognition to the artistic trajectory of the BNC foundress . For the Cuban rulers , recognizing the work or the talent goes through political alignment and fidelity . Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martínez del Hoyo took the surname Alonso from her ex-husband Fernando and her brotherin-law Alberto , both already deceased , who were exceptional dancers , teachers and co-founders of the company and the National School of Ballet ( ENB ). Since her return to Cuba in 1959 , she became the omnipotent and infallible hegemonic owner of a revolutionary fiefdom that transcended in time . As Commander Bernabé Ordaz at the Havana Psychiatric Hospital , Haydée Santamaria at the House of the Americas , Rodrigo Álvarez Cambras at the Frank País Orthopedic Hospital , Alfredo Guevara at the State Film Institute ( ICAIC ) and — at some point — Eusebio Leal at the Havana Historic Center , Alicia Alonso transformed the ballet in her personal parcel , always with consent of the powers that be . Both the artistic and the administrative designs , and even the fate of the people , were and are defined by her own criteria and interests . The higher leadership has focused the personality cult in a subtle and subliminal way : neither erecting monuments nor naming institutions after a personality . Only the baseball stadium in Jatibonico — at the center of the country — took the name of a living person by acclamation of the neighbors : Genaro Melero , a humble and consecrated player from the first half of the last century . It could be then thought that such unprecedented decision by the Council of State to honor Alicia Alonso in life is due to the artistic trajectory of an unquestionable ballet icon from the last century , who has demonstrated , from a very young age , exceptional gifts for classical ballet , overcame even the handicap of vision problems without ever steeping down from the stage , and supported the Cuban ballet company for several decades in two different centuries . She is recognized as one of the greatest exponents of classical ballet in the 20 th century . Nevertheless , she entered an alliance with the power in the sixties and stopped dancing at her usual level in the seventies , although her unbridled egotism unfortunately prevented her from leaving the artistic scene until the nineties . With the monopoly guaranteed by official backing , she created the ENB , where many talents became worldrenowned figures as members of one of the most prestigious ballet companies on earth . However , instead of developing a dynamic company connected with the keys of modernity , Alicia Alonso made the BNC into an anchored and conservative entity . It totally departs away from the universally accepted conceptual essence of national ballet , because it has nothing to do with the traditions and cultural heritage of the Cuban nation . It has so little Cubaness , that the company could be better recognized as the Russian Ballet of Havana . The self-proclaimed Prima Ballerina Assoluta has nuanced her hegemony with the nepotism and racism that characterize this cultural enclave , sequestered by her for several decades . Her daughter and her current husband have grabbed powers and influences within the ballet and dance environment . Meanwhile , many Afrodescendant dancers suffered the outrages of such a cultural autocracy : from the great Jorge Lefevre ( The 20 th Century Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Vallonie ) to Caridad Martínez , who became the Brooklyn Ballet ´ s director , to the group of talented ENB graduates to whom she had closed the doors . An ENB graduate , Carlos Acosta , deserves special mention . He joined
104